


Party Invitation

by ReaderRose



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Big Brother Sans, Birthday Party, Experimental Style, Gen, Grief/Mourning, POV First Person, Papyrus Is Dead But He's Still The Star Because It's Me, Post-Undertale Neutral Route - Exiled Queen Ending, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 08:42:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12931668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaderRose/pseuds/ReaderRose
Summary: Sans remembers his brother's obsession with planning parties.





	Party Invitation

**Author's Note:**

> YET ANOTHER ficlet I dug up for the dump that just needed a little editting/polishing/finishing to be publishable. I think this was originally genuinely going to be dialogue for a request fill or something but then it became this weird, angsty first-person thing. 
> 
> Anyway have a vintage sad from back in April.

You wanna know the saddest thing I've ever heard in my life? Never gonna be topped. It's my bro's stripes day coming up. You know, biggest event in a young monsters life? The moment they look forward to from practically the day they're born? Their very last day of being a kid? Yeah, huge deal. Really huge. Birthdays ain't a lot to us but that birthday, to a little kid, it's a big thing.

And Pap, he wanted it to be the  _ biggest _ thing. He planned out this whole party, every detail…  _ so many _ details. He wasn't even talking about things he was gonna do at this thing. He was so excited for the fun all the other kids would have, how they'd all love it, and by extension, how much they would all love him. And he deserved it. He was so good, Tori. God, he was the sweetest little guy. 

You'd have loved him. 

 

Anyway. 

We had everything set up. He worked so hard. He sent out invites to every kid in the Underground, I think. He put up signs and let everyone know that there was no body who wasn't invited so if they didn't get an invitation, come anyway. 

You would think that would have been enough, right? Hell, if nothing else, then at least for the free food. 

 

… But nobody came. 

Not a soul. Not a kid. Not a ghost. Not a freeloader. Not even a spider or a dog. 

He waited for hours with that same excited smile. He kept sayin they must just be running late. They would all show up soon. They would all come in, any second. Then it changed to ‘maybe nobody saw the signs.’ ‘Maybe all the invitations got lost in the mail.’

Finally I convinced him that we could still have the party, just the two of us. So we did. Like we always do, We did it together. I pass for a little kid anyway, and I mean… I wasn't actually that much older, even if I thought I was. And Tor, seriously, it was the best damn party I ever went to. He planned such a great little event. He had all these games he made up for it and everything. It was just fun. He was great at making things as fun as possible. 

He loved making people smile.   
  


So, uh… you know, the day was saved, Pap was smiling, we had fun, then we said goodbye to the stripes and he seemed totally happy, in spite of everything. He was such an optimist that, you know, I actually believed it when I thought he was over the whole mess.

Yeah. I know. I dunno what I was thinking. 

 

A few days later, he's sitting at the dinner table, just kinda picking at his food. He looks up at me and says “Sans… what's gonna happen when I die?”

You know, I kinda thought it was like… you know, everyone has that phase around that age where they start really wondering about souls and what comes after and all that. So I start getting the old “as long as the life you lived was good” bullshit ready, because he's thirteen and doesn't need to hear what I really think… but that's… not what it was at all. 

He keeps talking, and his sockets are just… blank. He didn't always use the eyelights but even without them he was so expressive. But they were just empty. And his voice was so small, and he was always so damn loud. And he says… “everybody forgot my birthday party. What if everybody forgets my funeral, too?”

I didn't know what to say. I was lucky my soul didn't shatter just from hearing it. 

So I told him that _I_  would be there. Without thinking, you know? Because I meant I'd never leave him, or forget about him. I'd always be by his side, every step of the way. And that's how he took it. He smiled. Not much, but he did, gave me a big hug, refused to let go. 

He was so small then. He grew up so much after. 

 

So, few months after that, I think the whole thing's forgotten, because Papyrus was always so damned cheerful and positive and it seemed… Resolved, you know? I didn't wanna think about either, so I assumed he didn't. 

But my bro was always full of surprises. He comes up to me and he brings me all these papers, and they're just covered front and back in writing and diagrams and crayon, marker, pencil, anything he could get his hands on. He tells me i need to hold onto it all but I can't look now. I did the fake peeking thing, see if I can get more out of him, and he says I can't read it until he dies. 

So I'm like, obviously I'm freaking out, right? My little bro, just out of stripes, suddenly writing mysterious notes and talking about dying. Obviously I read it. Or I start to. I need to know what's going on, right? Much as I wanna do what he wants, like I don't wanna go through his shit and completely violate his privacy but you gotta be seeing the red flags I was seeing, yeah?

Yeah. So. I read just enough to realize what it was he was entrusting me with. 

It was his plans for his funeral.

 

Yeah. I think i had that same look on my face. Remember, told him i was gonna be at his funeral? Cus stupid me, can't just, you know, say ‘if you die before i do, which you won't, you can't, cus you're healthy and strong and younger than me and I don't even take care of myself.’ I had to go and say ‘hey yeah I'll be there don't worry.’ like I'm excited to be there when my baby bro dies or something. 

So he decides I'm gonna be the one to have a big party and make sure people come and have a good time. He has all these ideas for it in this line, booklet he made. 

There was gonna be cake, and ice cream, and water balloons in the middle of freaking Snowdin. Never said my bro was a genius. He was, just… not with stuff like that.  And who am I to say he can't have people freezing to death in his funeral? It's his funeral, he can bring as many people with him as he wants. I ain't gonna judge.

 

So, uh, he wanted all his friends to be there, and as many others as he could: ‘potential friends who didn't end up being friends because of my untimely departure.’ that's the exact nomenclature. 

But Undyne’s dead, too. She was his best friend. Died the same day. Maybe that means he didn't have to be alone or somethin', I dunno. Hard to take much comfort in it. Never got into all that. There was also some kinda flower he also thought was his friend, right? But I can't find it anywhere. I thought it was maybe imaginary but i guess it was real? There was some stuff labs when I went to… yeah. Uh. Anyway. Pretty sure the flower’s dead, too. So, I didn't have any of his friends for the funeral. 

 

So I just kinda… put it off?

Heh. It's okay. I know. It's shitty. 

My bro was so afraid no one was gonna remember his funeral and I don't even throw him one. Couldn't think of what to spread the dust on, you know? And I wanted to make sure it was the best damn funeral he ever dreamed of but I… 

…I didn't have the energy for it, Toriel. You… you get that, right? I dunno how you manage. to, you know, get up in the morning. Make breakfast. Get dressed. Keep going. Be, like, some kinda functional person. Keep trying and caring and all that. So much work. Heh. Pap was like that. So much energy.  _ So much. _  I think he must have been a vampire. 's why he had so much and I didn't have any. Just sucked it right outta me.It was fine though, he did a lot more with it than I woulda. Took so much out of me I still haven't gotten it back a year later. 

Heh. 

So. Anyway. Finally decided to give this thing a shot. It's uh… probably going to be the hardest thing I've ever done? There's a bunch of his books, packed em up when I moved in, still didn't unpack ‘em. Sorry about that, I know you love reading, so kinda rude I didn't share. I just couldn't, you know? Too lazy, heh heh. Anyway, he loved those books. All of em, so I'm gonna spread his dust on all if em. That way, anytime someone wants to read em, they got a reading buddy there to enjoy it with them. I think he would have really liked that. I hope, anyway. He didn't actually mention that part on his, like, 34 page document. Most of that was devoted to the pinata. (Thankfully, he did not opt to put his dust in there. That'da been awesome. But also terrible and I don't know if I woulda done it if he asked. Probably wouldn't. Probably just my sense of humor. Pap had a bit more class.) Heh.

 

Right. Getting off track. 

 

Tori, what I've been trying to say is… I refuse to be the only one showing up to this. It would suck. He would be fine with it, but it would suck. I know this is probably… not at all what you want to do. Ever. You been to enough funerals. I get it. But it's not gonna be sad. It's gonna be awesome. You being there would make it even more awesome. Even though you didn't know him… you're just a potential friend he never got to meet. And he wants you there. 

See?  Says it right here. 

There's gonna be cake and puzzles and I'm gonna try to force as many people as I can to come and I know you hate crowds, but… come anyway? It'd have made him real happy. And it'll make me happy that he woulda been happy. And maybe… maybe it'll make you happy too?

 

Anyway, just think about it, okay? I gotta go order a heated water slide and a set of cymbals, but uh… I'll be around later. 

Just think about it. 


End file.
